Cher Gets Real About Jeans for The Gap

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Future has earned himself a slew of major endorsement deals since his rise to superstardom, and now he’s joining a pop icon for his newest branding move. The Atlanta rapper stars alongside Cher for their new ad as a part of Gap’s ‘Meet Me in the Gap’ fall campaign, and we’re getting a first look at the commercial.

The teaser video for the ad (below) shows the two sitting on some steps in an all-white setting, with Cher singing a cover of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People” record from 1969. The platinum-selling MC backs up the veteran pop star with some of his signature vocals, as well as his notable ad-libs, which he laces over an edgy hip-hop beat in the background.

There is only one Cher. The pop divas of today owe a debt to the trailblazing star, who at 71 continues to innovate with her music and boundless personal style. As the ultimate icon of unabashed glamour, she’s served as inspiration for countless designers and provided the world with decades’ worth of headline-making red carpet looks. With that kind of influence, Cher could easily channel her fashion cred into merch or a capsule collection of her own, but for the always unorthodox star, there’s no point in taking on a project unless it’s going to be a good time. “If someone says, Do you want to do something?, the first thing I think of is, Oh, that would be fun! And that’s how I decide,” said Cher on the phone from Washington, D.C. “So when the Gap said, ‘Would you like to do something with a younger artist?’ I thought, ‘Yeah, that would be cool. I would like that.’ ”

The artist in question was Future, the chart-topping performer-producer whose hits have come to define hip-hop’s current sound. Joining forces for the new Gap denim campaign, the pair unite to sing a rendition of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People,” a track handpicked by Cher. “It’s just a great song,” she explains of her choice. “It’s got so many little things that go on in between these really profound lyrics, like the kid’s rhyme in the middle of it. Problems that we had when it was first done are the problems that we have now. They gave me a million songs [to choose from] and that was the song that I was drawn to.”

With lyrics that touch on issues of racism, sexism, and other interpersonal biases, the song is an especially timely choice. Its message of finding common ground with people who on the surface may seem different is underscored by Cher and Future’s collaboration. Though she admits that she wasn’t versed in Atlanta’s hip-hop scene before they worked together, Cher found Future instantly charming. “I got familiar once we got on the stage he rocked a little bit,” she says. “It was funny. He was very cute yet shy, and really he liked to have fun.”

Of course, doing the commercial was about more than simply making a great cover song with one of the moment’s hottest acts. Advertising’s power comes from its ability to normalize ideas that extend beyond products themselves, a fact Cher is aware of. “When I was young, there were just white people on commercials. That was it,” she says. “If you see [representation] all the time, then it just becomes the norm.”

When it comes to bigotry, Cher has zero patience. A firebrand on social media known for her emoji-laden tweets, she’s every bit as opinionated offline. “It’s just mind-boggling and so awful,” she says of the recent white supremacist marches in Charlottesville. “Prejudice makes no sense—it’s ridiculous, and if people stopped for just one second and thought about why the fuck they were doing it, they’d stop.” But although she’s disappointed with the current state of affairs, the resistance movement has left her inspired. “You look at the Women’s March when we went to Washington and the marches that we did down Fifth Avenue the night of the election,” she says. “You saw all these young kids, all these young people, [their generation] has lost those prejudices. They’re just shedding it like a terrible old snakeskin.”

Politics aside, there is one thing everyone knows about Cher: Her fearlessness extends to her wardrobe. From those legendary Bob Mackie performance costumes to her bohemian ’70s looks, her ever-evolving style has been consistently compelling. Still, it comes as something of a surprise to learn that music’s grande dame is a fan of online shopping. “It’s easy. You can send it back, and I don’t have to put on makeup or anything to go out,” she explains. And though she enjoys the occasional St. Tropez designer shopping spree, she’s just as happy picking up a few essentials at Free People. “They have some great things,” she says. “Look, also, you can have a lot of money and have gold faucets, you know what I mean? Money doesn’t make you chic.”

It’s that directness that makes her fashion advice so compelling. “I like what I like and I don’t care what the fashion is,” she says. “You have to wear what’s good for your body. It doesn’t even make any difference how in-fashion you are if you look like shit.” Having already tested out most of the current trends on their first go-round, she’s not about to edit her wardrobe to suit the masses. She’s long hung on to favorites like worn-in leather jackets and low-rise denim, which she wears until they fall apart. “I have one pair of jeans that I’ve worn so much that they are almost all patched because of holes,” she says with a laugh. “Not because of fashion, just because I wore the ass out of them! There are so many fabulous patches on them.”

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The concept of age-appropriate dressing also gets a thumbs-down. “Look, my mom’s 91 and she is a cool dresser,” says Cher. “She hasn’t really changed anything since she was in her fifties, so I don’t believe in that Oh, you get to a certain age and you have to cut your hair and you have to stop doing one thing or another thing. I just think that I’ll wear some of the stuff I have as long as I can get into it.” We wouldn’t have it any other way.